Profits, in short, resulting from the relationships of costs to prices, not only tell us which goods it is most economical to make, but which are the most economical ways to make them. These questions must be answered by a socialist system no less than by a capitalist one; they must be answered by any conceivable economic system; and for the overwhelming bulk of the commodities and services that are produced, the answers supplied by profit and loss under competitive free enterprise are incomparably superior to those that could be obtained by any other method.
Profits guide and channel the
factors of production so as to apportion the relative output of thousands of different commodities in accordance with demand. No
bureaucrat, no matter how brilliant, can solve this problem
arbitrarily. Free prices and free profits will maximize production and relieve shortages
ipso facto more quickly than any other system.
Arbitrarily fixed prices and arbitrarily limited profits can only prolong shortages and reduce production and employment.
The function of profits, finally, is to put constant and unremitting pressure on the head of every competitive business to introduce further economies and efficiencies, no matter to what stage these may already have been brought.
Example:
"Contrary to a popular impression, profits are achieved not by raising prices, but by introducing economies and efficiencies
that cut costs of production. It seldom happens (and unless there is a government-responsible monopoly it never happens over a long period) that every firm in an industry makes a profit. The price charged by all
firms for the same
commodity or service must be the same; those who try to charge a higher price do not find buyers. Therefore, the largest profits go to the firms that have achieved the lowest costs of production. These expand at the expense of the
inefficient firms with higher costs. It is thus that the consumer and the public are served."